What is the longest gap between two home games at the same stadium?

“The reborn and now renamed Bury FC will play at Gigg Lane next season, around 221 weeks since Bury’s last competitive game at the ground, against Port Vale in May 2019,” writes David Triggs. “Will this be the longest gap between a team playing two home games at the same stadium?”

Four years is a helluva long time in football, but it’s nowhere near the longest gap between home games at the same stadium. Let’s start with a famous groundshare from the 1980s: “Charlton Athletic moved from the Valley after a 2-0 win over Stoke City on 21 September 1985 – Rob Lee scored the winning goal – and returned after more than seven years’ exile at Selhurst Park and Upton Park,” writes Michael Haughey. “They celebrated their return to the Valley with a 1-0 win over Portsmouth on 5 December 1992.”

It’s a while since the Luftwaffe were last mentioned in the Knowledge, but this question is right up their street. “Despite being requisitioned by the military and being a bit bombed by the Luftwaffe, Old Trafford was still used by Manchester United (on and off) until 8 March 1941, when they beat Bury 7-3 in a War League game,” notes Jim Hearson. “Three days later, the bombers came back and pretty much finished the job, causing United to share with City for a while. I say a while, their first game back was on 24 August 1949, some 428 weeks after their last.”

Duncan Richer has tweeted about England, who had a nine-year, three-day gap between competitive matches at Wembley from 1938 to 1947*. This one needs the asterisk, as England played internationals at Wembley throughout the war. But they were all unofficial games, either War-Time or Victory Internationals. England went six years and seven months between internationals at Wembley while the